MOSCOW, March 1 (Reuters) - Russian gas export monopoly
Gazprom (GAZP.MM) won the rights to a giant Siberian gas field
destined to supply the fast-growing markets of China, a
spokesman for the sale organiser said on Tuesday.

Victory at the auction will allow Gazprom to extract the
field's 2 trillion cubic metres of reserves, enough to supply
the world for eight months, and forge deeper ties with China,
where the Russian energy giant plans to start exporting gas in
2015.

Gazprom paid 22.3 billion roubles ($773 million) for rights,
said the chief financial officer of BP (BP.L) Russian venture
TNK-BP TNBP.MM, which bankrupted the subsidiary that held the
license after failing to get export permission for the field.

"It is virtually for free," VTB Capital oil and gas analyst
Lev Snykov said, pegging the valuation at 6 cents per barrel of
oil equivalent. The stock market values Gazprom at $1.80 per
barrel and global majors at $10, he said.

Gazprom has said it expected to wrap up long-running talks
on the price of future gas deliveries to China in July. As the
talks have worn on, China has expanded its supplier base through
LNG deliveries and secured pipeline supplies from Central Asia.
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"The value (to Gazprom) will be crystallised as soon as
Gazprom reaches a more distinct agreement with China but it will
definitely be more than they paid for it," Snykov said.

Until Kovykta is launched, it can ship some gas from the
Pacific island of Sakhalin, and it plans to build a pipeline
from the Arctic fields of the Yamal peninsula.

Under the terms of the sale, Gazprom won the right to
acquire the assets of TNK-BP unit Rusia Petroleum.

"The licence will be reregistered, and the winner has the
pre-emptive right to acquire the licence," a spokesman for the
sale organiser said.

The starting price at the auction, held in the Siberian
city of Irkutsk, was set at 15.1 billion roubles.

Gazprom, which beat state holding Rosneftegaz, owner of
Russia's top oil company Rosneft (ROSN.MM) with the 22.3 billion
rouble winning bid, was not available for comment.
"Coincidentally it is the same price we agreed with Gazprom
some years ago ... and allows us to fully recover the
investments on the balance sheets," TNK-BP Chief Financial
Officer Jonathan Muir told a conference call on Tuesday.

TNK-BP last year filed to bankrupt its Kovykta subsidiary,
RUSIA Petroleum, to recover its investments, after failing to
win approval to export gas from the field, strategically located
near Lake Baikal, to China.

TNK-BP had agreed in 2007 to sell Kovykta to Gazprom for
about $1 billion, but the deal collapsed in a dispute on price.

Media have speculated that Russia's second-largest gas
producer, Novatek NOTK.MM, in which influential trader Gennady
Timchenko holds a stake of more than 20 percent, might emerge as
the eventual owner of the field, a prospect VTB Capital's Snykov
said was never likely.

"The political commitment is still to have everything which
has to do with the future with China under state control," he
said.

"Rosneft does not have an opportunity to export gas," Snykov
said. "It is absolutely an appropriate decision given that
Gazprom has ability to put infrastructure in place and to have
this project linked to the future supplies to China."

Novatek shares fell 5.45 percent to 364 roubles in Moscow
trade, and equity traders said Gazprom's win had disappointed
some who had staked bets on Novatek following the news reports
last week.